Thesis 2009/10 by Mathias Janko and Tanja Schantl

Between the 14th April 2010 and 22nd June 2010 Mathias Janko and Tanja Schantl are exhibiting objects - created by combining media and technology - which show the versatility of reality in relation to the perceptions of the viewer.
The different installations deal with awareness and communication. The viewer perceives a situation and tries to become aware of it with, inter alia, nonverbal communication. Using these technical devices encourages the viewer to stray away from his usual mental thought process and instead strive for a greater understanding. This therefore means that „right“ answer is not always sought out.
According to Paul Watzlawick, who is the inspiration behind the issue in this thesis, „You can’t NOT communicate“. Communication arises as soon as a person perceives somebody or something, because any conduct has a communicative character. You’re forced to communicate, because you can’t NOT behave.
An approach to illustrate Watzlawicks view is made in one of the installations consisting of many tiles of a mirror, which are attached to the wall like an unusual mosaic, pointing in different directions. The mirrors form a total surface of about 20 by 60 cm. Before the exhibition a beamer projects different keywords („Wirklichkeit“, „Wahrheit“, „Realität“) onto the mirrors from different positions. These keywords are then reflected by the mirrors in different directions and become visible on walls, floor and ceiling. There they get painted and the beamer is removed. The keywords are then readable by a viewer standing at the beamer’s different positions looking into the mirrors.
It’s generally claimed that mirrors reflect reality. What is not considered is which reality is being reflected. The viewer is invited to choose a position to find the truth and then interpret the meaning of the reflection.
The ‘Vernissage’ is the highlight of the thesis.
In advance, detailed plans are worked out and logged experiments are done on the projects, which will be shown at the exhibition.